You're Actually More Stressed At Home Than At Work

The claim: While you may associate work with stress, your body says otherwise. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol are more likely to spike while you’re at home than at the office, suggests a study from the journal Social Science & Medicine.

The research: The study team used saliva samples to track the cortisol levels of 122 people going about their daily lives. Contrary to what you (and the researchers) would have thought, people’s stress levels were significantly higher while at home compared to the office. That finding was even truer among low-income earners and people without children, the study shows. Despite these findings, the study participants said they tended to feel more stressed on workdays than on non-workdays.

What it means: A long line of research has linked a steady job to higher rates of mental and physical health, says study coauthor Sarah Damaske, PhD, a sociologist at Penn State. Damaske says American culture places a very high value on tasks done for professional or financial reasons—as opposed to the equally important (but unpaid) tasks performed at home. And that sense of satisfaction from performing culturally valued tasks may partly explain the drop in stress, she adds. (It’s also possible the lack of structure at home can up your stress levels, the research indicates.)

The bottom line: While the word “work” seems to conjure up images of stress and unpleasant tasks, for many people that’s not actually the case. It’s important to make time for both work and family, Damaske says. But she says a flexible work schedule—so long as you’re still working regularly—is a bigger key to lowering stress and boosting well-being than abandoning professional responsibilities altogether in favor of more time at home.